Auto-Erotica

First off, apologies in advance to all of the weirdos who found this post via Google.

So, a few days ago, I teased my foray into the world of autograph seeking. Hunting these a'grafs (to parlay what I'm pretty sure is the street lingo) wasn't too hard as they came free with the SUPER VIP ticket to The National that I received as an early birthday present.

(Side note: Tomorrow, the 16th, is my actual birthday. Hooray for me for being born!)

While at The National, I couldn't resist meeting a couple of favorites from my childhood. I even stood in the shorter lines to snag a few other signatures. I'm considering holding on to a couple of the extras for a future contest and some may be headed to family members and blogger friends.

Bill Madlock was one of three guests at VIP night. Madlock signed several cards for me. For some reason, he used a pen I wasn't thrilled with on a couple of them, but no huge whoop.

Uh, yeah, that didn't work so well. Actually, looks much better live than scan, thankfully.

Madlock was favorite of mine in the late '70s. He was a four-time batting title champ and won a World Series ring with the Pittsburgh "We Are Family" Pirates. I recall that World Series very well and was rooting hard for Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Madlock and Kent Tekulve. The Pirates have ranked in my top echelon of teams ever since.

Madlock loved it when he saw this card.

I wrote about the Hostess cards a few months ago and how much those cards still mean to me. This was my first opportunity to get one signed so I went for it. I considered leaving it at home but thought it might be fun to get a signature and unite my past and present a bit. The best/worst part for me is this was by far my worst cut. Lovely.

The other baseballer in the Very Important People room was Don Kessinger. As a kid, I knew his name but basically nothing about him. He seemed like a good guy as he chatted everyone up with his Arkansas twang. Here are the cards he signed.

Great signature. I particularly love how the '76 looks. No, silly me didn't grab a Cubs Kessinger in time.

Next up, Dick Fosbury - he of the Flop variety. Fosbury was the third VIP in the room. I had nothing for him to sign and pulled out a note card. I didn't scan it but he signed it: "Dick Fosbury, '68 Gold". Nice guy.

During the regular show days I met several other former semi-stars: Jack "The Ripper" Clark, The Brothers Reuschel, Leon "Bull" Durham, Buddy Bell, Lee Smith and Stan Bahnsen. Bahnsen was Rookie of the Year for the Yankees in '68. Who knew. I wasn't planning on getting his signature and didn't have a card. When a pal from the previous day's line saw me, he said I should walk over there and use my Bahnsen ticket. Basically no line at all. Bought the first Bahnsen I could find, for 20 cents, at the table next to where I was standing and headed on over.

Here are some of their signatures put to cardboard. First up are my four favorites from the show.

Bell's rookie card. I grabbed this at the show.

This looks tremendous in hand.

Signature in black pops nicely with the border.

I gave away a couple of cards to seekers in line, including a Rick Reuschel Cubs, but I hung on to this one and took advantage of the rare chance to get two big league brothers signing the same card. Why Topps put Paul's name where Rick is picture and Rick's name where Paul is pictured is anybody's guess. Alphabetical? Silly though.

Along with Madlock, I was most excited about Buddy Bell. I always followed his career and was thrilled when he landed on the Reds later in his career. Of course, in my haste the night before the show, I forgot to pull a card of him on the Reds.

Here are some more from the big show:

Nice.

The other Lee card. Also love this. Arguably nicer than the first but I'm so partial to the '83s.

Love, love the '83; wrote on his eye with the one immediately above. Ick.

Such a classic shot for me. Great signature.

Believe it or not, I have one more Bell around here that I forgot to scan.

In one word, here's my final and authoritative word on the signers based on my two seconds with them. Well, it's also based on my time spent staring at them while in line.

Jack Clark: Swarthy  (By the way, realized I didn't scan the Clark. I'll probably add it here later or in another post.)

Bill "Mad Dog" Madlock: Happy
Don Kessinger: Folksy
Paul Reuschel: Awshucks
Rick Reuschel: Meh
Buddy Bell: Sophisticated
Lee Smith: Awesome
Leon Durham: Disappointing
Stan Bahnsen: Bored

I brought along three old baseballs I had purchased a decade ago for a White Sox charity night meet and greet and I bought one more at the show. The balls were signed by Madlock, Kessinger, Smith and Bell.